Patient Volumes and Outcomes at the Center for Interventional Psychiatry

The Center for Interventional Psychiatry at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital offers personalized care and treatment plans for patients with hard to treat neuro-psychiatric disorders. Patients who choose our center come to us because we are a leader in our field based on our volumes and outcomes; we are not only providing services, but training other health professionals, and researching new avenues of treatment.

Our work complements the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, which has been a trusted leader in the field of psychiatry for more than 60 years. We are also one of the largest behavioral healthcare providers affiliated with an academic medical center in the US.

An important aspect of our clinical program is ensuring that our treatment success compares well to other programs offering the same services.

Our Psychiatric Interventional Treatment Outcomes

Our outcomes are as follows:

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

We have been providing ECT services for more than 30 years. In 2019, our center performed 3621 ECT treatments for more than 200 patients. Seventy to 75 percent of our patients experienced significant improvements in their symptoms of depression. This rate is consistent with improvement rates in ECT centers nationwide. UPMC is one of the few ECT providers in the tri-state area and offers this treatment for several psychiatric disorders. Our numbers have been growing over the past several years, as patients and their providers continue to realize the excellent benefit of ECT. 

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

TMS therapy was approved by the FDA in 2008, and our center began providing TMS treatment in July of 2015. We have seen a steady increase in this service since its beginning.  In 2019 we provided a total of 1,410 treatment sessions. Close to 60% of our patients got better (with 40% of them going into remission) with this treatment. This rate of success is consistent with expected outcomes and remission rates for this treatment. UPMC is the one of the few providers of TMS services in the Pittsburgh area.

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)

This is a rare procedure performed for hard-to-treat OCD. We have had a few patients receive this treatment f0r this particular indication.  We have had good success with this so far.

Esketamine/Ketamine Services (EsKIT/KIT)

This is the newest treatment added to the center in 2020; we do not yet have any numbers with these treatments.  Stay tuned for more on this.